Temperature Monitoring @ Falabs

At FALABS we do not monitor the temperatures of our cold rooms or incubators once per day. Why? Because that does not inform of us of anything useful, however it does tick a box for antiquated quality systems and in any case, who can read mercury/alcohol thermometers accurately and reliably in dark incubators or cold rooms (bearing in mind that strong light can degrade some agars to form toxic compounds that may restrict the growth of organisms thus affecting results)? We monitor temperatures continuously from multiple points throughout our storage and testing facility. We believe temperature control is crucial to the quality of test results, especially in microbiological analysis and monitoring temperatures just once per day or even several times is wholly inadequate where food safety is concerned. Why? Because taking temperatures typically just once first thing in a morning, or once every several hours gives no indication of any temperature failure issues which may effect the validity of microbiological results after the required incubation periods.

All our temperature controlled environments have mutiple (at least 3) calibrated thermistors placed in the working zones, low, middle, high, back or front etc  and temperatures are monitored continuously, with records made once every minute, 24 hours a day 365 days per year. Temperature control can be audited thus giving proper quality assurance with no gaps.

Since adopting this advanced system, we have been able to improve our quality systems so that we are 100% confident in our ability to provide a reliable, assured testing environment.

If an out of specification incident happens for longer than a pre-determined period a blue strobe is activated at the point of concern, so lab staff can take immediate action. An email message is also automatically sent to lab managers from the remote monitoring company CWi Technical Ltd , based in Lincolnshire. It details the issue to us as a further backup system. Records are maintained in off site databases with CWi Technical Ltd, and the whole system is monitored via the use of web technology on the NetPortal platform.

The system has now cost over £12,000 to install and we believe we have the most sophisticated monitoring systems in any routine food lab in the World, and we actually know how good our equipment is. Can other labs demonstrate such control?

The Falabs cool chain and initial process audit: